Mental Health Youth meets Elderly Part 2
Student Mental Health could also have a connection to future mental health problems when they reach an elderly state such as Alzheimer's. Youth facing challenges in class or at work even in their homes face challenges that they don't realize affect their mental health. Students who spent their time studying and, practicing help build the temporal lobe in the brain. The temporal lobe is a part of the brain known as the limbic system, which includes the hippocampus, the amygdala, the cingulate gyrus, the thalamus, the hypothalamus, the epithalamus, the mammillary body and other organs, many of which are of particular relevance to the processing of memory. Working the mind at a young age is highly beneficial because it helps develop temporal lobe making it easier to remember bits of information that one would usually forget if not for constant studying.
Now, what is Alzheimer's? Alzheimer’s is progressive mental deterioration that can occur in middle or old age, due to generalized degeneration of the brain. It is the most common cause of premature senility. Mayoclinic has stated some causes of Alzheimer’s and, here are some of them posted.
Age
Increasing age is the greatest known risk factor for Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is not a part of normal aging, but your risk increases greatly after you reach age 65. The rate of dementia doubles every decade after age 60. People with rare genetic changes linked to early-onset Alzheimer's begin experiencing symptoms as early as their 30s.
Family history and genetics
Your risk of developing Alzheimer's appears to be somewhat higher if a first-degree relative — your parent or sibling — has the disease. Scientists have identified rare changes (mutations) in three genes that virtually guarantee a person who inherits them will develop Alzheimer's. But these mutations account for less than 5 percent of Alzheimer's disease.
Most genetic mechanisms of Alzheimer's among families remain largely unexplained. The strongest risk gene researchers have found so far is apolipoprotein e4 (APoE4), though not everyone with this gene goes on to develop Alzheimer's disease. Other risk genes have been identified but not conclusively confirmed.
Down syndrome
Many people with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer's disease. Signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's tend to appear 10 to 20 years earlier in people with Down syndrome than they do for the general population. A gene contained in the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome significantly increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Sex
Women seem to be more likely than are men to develop Alzheimer's disease, in part because they live longer.
Mild cognitive impairment
People with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have memory problems or other symptoms of cognitive decline that are worse than might be expected for their age, but not severe enough to be diagnosed as dementia.
Those with MCI have an increased risk — but not a certainty — of later developing dementia. Taking action to develop a healthy lifestyle and strategies to compensate for memory loss at this stage may help delay or prevent the progression to dementia.
Past head trauma
People who've had a severe head trauma seem to have a greater risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Lifestyle and heart health
There's no lifestyle factor that's been definitively shown to reduce your risk of Alzheimer's disease.
However, some evidence suggests that the same factors that put you at risk of heart disease also may increase the chance that you'll develop Alzheimer's. Examples include:
- Lack of exercise
- Obesity
- Smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke
- High blood pressure
- High blood cholesterol
- Poorly controlled type 2 diabetes
- A diet lacking in fruits and vegetables
These risk factors are also linked to vascular dementia, a type of dementia caused by damaged blood vessels in the brain. Working with your health care team on a plan to control these factors will help protect your heart — and may also help reduce your risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
My theory is that education at a young age does affect your chances of getting Alzheimer's when you reach over 40. Youth who don't work their brain by testing themselves or, doing basic mind games to keep the temporal lobe functioning normally is another cause for in the future suffering from Alzheimer’s when they reach 40 and up. Emily Schoenhofen Sharp, M.A. and, Margaret Gatz, Ph.D. both ran studies on this thesis on the relationship between education and dementia.
-The methods used are described where a systematic literature review was conducted of all published studies examining the relationship between education and dementia listed in the PubMed and PsycINFO databases from January 1985 to July 2010. The inclusion criteria were a measure of education and a dementia diagnosis by a standardized diagnostic procedure. Alzheimer’s disease and Total Dementia were the outcomes.
The results were a total of 88 study populations from 71 articles met inclusion criteria. Overall, (58%) reported significant effects of lower education on risk for dementia whereas (42%) reported no significant relationship. A relationship between education and risk of dementia was more consistent in developed compared to developing regions. Age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographical region moderated the relationship.
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| Lifespan Developmental Model for a Relationship between Education and Dementia. |
In conclusion, lower education was associated with a greater risk for dementia in many but not all studies. The level of education associated with risk for dementia varied by study population and more years of education did not uniformly attenuate the risk for dementia. It appeared that a more consistent relationship with dementia occurred when years of education reflected cognitive capacity, suggesting that the effect of education on risk for dementia may be best evaluated within the context of a lifespan developmental model.
Overall, the results of this review suggest that the education-dementia relationship may be more complex than previously suggested in the aging literature. The results suggest that lower education is associated with an increased risk for dementia for some but not all studies. Further, the level of education that was most associated with dementia risk varied considerably by study region as well as by age, gender, and race/ethnicity. We did not find clear evidence that prevalence studies reported stronger or more consistent significant effects of education on risk for dementia compared to incidence studies. The existence of an education-dementia relationship seems strongly tied to the unique demands of an individual’s environment. We suggest that education is best described as a proxy for a trajectory of life events, beginning prior to and extending beyond the years of formal education, that either increase or decrease an individual’s risk for dementia.- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
In their studies, they proved there is a connection to low and higher education to dementia. As I stated earlier youth who have a lower education have a higher percentage of suffering from Alzheimer’s while those who have a higher education are at a lower percentage. This doesn't mean though that the theory is proven, there's still so much more to discover and, learn about Alzheimer’s. In part 3 we will be discussing research done on Alzheimer’s in the United States and, in other countries, on does education have a connection to dementia.
Make sure to come back tomorrow for Part Three Alzheimer’s around the world. That’s all on Traveling Activist with your favorite host Zachery Ramos. Always remember if you can dream it you can achieve it, just make sure your heart is in it.
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